Gachagua faults Kalonzo on choices of aspirants

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Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has faulted Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka over his choices of parliamentary aspirants in the last elections.

During the recent visit to Ukambani together with opposition partners, including former AG Justin Muturi and Eugene Wamalwa, Gachagua said Kalonzo’s choices betrayed him.

He singled out Kibwezi West Member of Parliament, Mwengi Mutuse, who was part of the Azimio coalition before the elections but later joined forces with the ruling party.

The United Opposition leaders were in five day meet the people tour of Ukambani.

Although Gachagua hinted that Kalonzo may be the opposition camp’s best-suited presidential candidate to face President William Ruto in 2027, he seemed to have preferred candidates in Kalonzo’s backyard.

“I have followed the political journey of Kalonzo Musyoka. He instructed the Akamba people to vote for the late Raila Odinga for many years, but there is somewhere you go wrong, electing a betrayer,” Gachagua said

Adding, “You are causing disrespect to the Wiper party leader by electing people like Mwengi Mutuse, who has betrayed him,”

Mutuse was elected for the first time in parliament on a Maendeleo Chap Chap ticket, where in the 2022 election he was inclined to Azimio la Umoja One Kenya.

He later joined the ruling coalition, Kenya Kwanza, before jumping ship in 2026, again, to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), where he is President Ruto’s Makueni point man.

At Kibwezi, the late evening township rally witnessed a mammoth crowd with rowdy youth momentarily disrupting Kalonzo’s speeches.

At the centre of the rowdy situation was James Kimanthi Mbaluka’s supporters, who demanded that Kalonzo allow him a moment to address them.

Mbaluka, a former president Ruto ally turned critic being fronted as Mutuse’s equal in the 2027 Kibwezi West MP race with Urbanus Wambua, a nominated Wiper MCA and Kalonzo’s die-hard.

“Stop pushing each other. We came here because of Mbaluka or Kalonzo?” the Wiper leader posed amid a standoff

The Wiper boss warned the aspirants against shaming him before the other principals.

Kalonzo, who maintained a need to vote out the area MP Mutuse, seemed firm on not allowing any of the MP hopefuls to address the locals. It took the intervention of DCP party leader Gachagua through his deputy Cleophas Malala to signal Kalonzo to allow Mbaluka to talk to the agitated locals before calm returned.

 “A wave of change is coming. It is a one-term guarantee which will be effected through Kalonzo Musyoka’s lenses,” Mbaluka said